Pokemon Go looks to the future in new interview as it announces Clamperl-focused limited research event

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over two years since Pokemon Go launched, starting an international craze that seemingly had everyone out and about, using their phones to hunt for Nintendo’s iconic critters. The craze may have died down since, but the game is still going strong, and 2018 saw the addition of a number of features that fans have been awaiting since release, including trading and PvP battling. But Niantic’s work is far from done, as POGO Product Manager Matt Slemon makes evident in a recent interview with Polygon, in which he discusses what’s next for the popular augmented-reality game.

Although the interview begins by reflecting on the past couple of years since the game’s release, the real meat of it is all about the game’s present and, more importantly, its future. On top of the recently added Go Snapshot feature, which allows players to use the game’s augmented reality features to take photos of their Pokemon whenever they wish, the devs are also looking into making changes to special research missions.

Moreover, now that the devs feel that they’ve “hit the point where [their] original launch trailer promise has been delivered,” they’re looking to start implementing “more features that are less traditional Pokemon features” and “that are more about really showing what it means to be an AR real-world game, not just a Pokemon game.” What does that mean, exactly? Who knows! But Slemon seems excited to get those features into players’ hands, whenever that may happen.

In the meantime, though, players still have regular in-game events to keep them busy, such as the recently announced limited research event, featuring everyone’s favorite adorable bivalve Pokemon Clamperl. From 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, February 23rd, players will receive double stardust for catching water-type Pokemon, which will be appearing more frequently, and they can visit Pokestops to receive limited research tasks that will reward them with Clamperl encounters. For more details, be sure to check out the announcement on the game’s official site.